Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Science Of Selling (part 1)

My friend lend me a book, and I think this is good book, especially for salespeople. the title :

" You Can Sell anything" - Your personal guide to the system and strategies of highly effective salespeople. Author : Tony Iozzi. Published 1995.

If you are an salesmen or interest to marketing, I reccomend you to buy that book. And on my blog, I only write "The Essence Of Highly Effective Selling".

You may read the Introduction part, below :
Regardless of your education, background or previous employment history, your success in selling is limited only by how well you can lead your self to apply the skills of highly effective salespeople.

As a salesperson you are a member of a profession that rewards those who help other people to help themselves. From its beginning , selling has rewarded results, not theory. University degrees don't count: neither do sporting prowess nor pedigree.

That's great news! It means you are not stuck with what or where you are. Effective selling depends on your ability, not on your background.

More Than any other field selling has been responsible for improving our standard of living, providing jobs, bolstering the economy and offering success-minded individuals a 'level playing field' to see how far they can go.

Why choose a sales career?

For one thing, to make money or to earn a living you have to sell something. If you are direct salesperson, you determine what your service is worth the commissions you are able to generate. If you are a non-sales employee, you employer will determine what your service is worth by fixing a wage. In both these cases you are selling you ability to bring value to the marketplace. One is 'indoor' the other 'outdoor' or 'field staff'. One generally pays commission or a retainer plus commission, the other pays a predetermined income.

Usually 'outdoor and commission-only' salespeople have the opportunity to reap the biggest rewards. These people are true believers- those who eschew a comfortable indoor job for the chance to earn as much as their talent and products will allow them. They feel that there is no such thing as security- only opportunity.

Highly effective salespeople have their own reasons for choosing selling as their life's work. These include freedom, the chance to earn an above average income, meeting a variety of people, helping enrich people's livesand independence. Whatever their reasons, selling enables them to become a self-made, self-led person. It can provide the opportunity to become one of the most highly paid people in the country.

There are no tricks, no preconditions. The more they earn, the more their company loves them.

The Market For Salespeople

A casual look at the 'positions vacant' columns of your daily newspaper will show a variety of employers who are always in the market for salespeople. Some advertisements are quite misleading and promise thousands of dollars in weekly earnings without setting out job details, funds required to start and so on. Usually those advertisements are accompanied by the promise: 'no experience necessary'. These jobs can causemany applicants unnecessary anguish.

However there are many reputable sales companies that offer rewarding and highly satisfying careers. Nevertheless you need to accept that a career as a salesperson requires as much-if not more- work and dedication as does any other job that promises high rewards. For the majority of salespeople it can take months, if not years, to learn their profession exceedingly well.

A most sales positions offering the highest rewards tend to be commission-based, it would be wise to have a reserve fund of six to 12 months income before you start calling. That's because commission selling is very much like running you own business. It take time to make it profitable. But when you hang in there and apply your self, you'll discover the rumours you've heard about highly effective salespeople being among the highest paid earners are most certainly true.

The aim of this book for your sales success is to help you become one of them.

The Buyer's Perspective

Selling and buying have envolved together. Nowdays the public is better educated. People have an increased ability to grasp concepts. They know (or have heard of) the tricks some unethical salespeople apply. They are wary, and have been conditioned to respond to salespeople in certain ways through experience and stereotyping. They use a number of conditioned replies to defer saless success.

From the early days of buying to satisfy needs, today people buy just as often to satisfy wants. They might buy to satisfy their self-image, to make a statement to others, for vanity, for the person they would like tobe. The highly effective salesperson needs to be something of a psychologist as well as an adviser.

The community's eyes and ears

Today you can get more information out of one sunday newspaper than you could in the lifetime of someone who lived in the sixteenth century. Keeping it with all the new trends, ideas, technology and products is an impossible task for any individual.

Salespeople bring the lates develovments to a client's attention. For example, a business would soon stagnate if it stopped seeing salespeople because it would have seased to educate itself on the latest innovations and improvements.

Even buyers hate to be 'sold'

have you ever walked into store where, before you had a chance to look around, sales clerks pounced and asked if they would help you? if you're anything like me, you would have found that irritating. That's because we love to buy, but hate to be 'sold'. Moreever, we like to buy from someone we can trust. We want to have confidence in the integrity of their advice and in their ability to provide aftersales service.

We all have idiosyncratic reasons for buying a thing or for not buying it. Generally the reasons people don't buy include:
  • No Trust. This means: I hear what you are saying, I can see I have a need and how your product can meet that need, I know I need it now but I don't trust you or your company to do the job for me.
  • No Need. This means: I trust you and your company. I can see how your product can help other people and why they should buy it, but I don't need it.
  • No Help. This means: I trust you and your company. I can see I have a need but I can't see how your product can meet that need.
  • No Hurry. This means: I trust you and your company. I can see I have a need and how your product is perfect for it, but I've got no reason to buy it now.
  • No Money. This means: I trust you and your company, I can see I have a need, that your product meets that need and that I should buy it now- but I can't afford it! (In other words, for me to afford it I will have to give up something else. Prove to me it's worth it. Or I want it, but can't see a way of paying for it. Show me how.)
Meny of those "ownership deferrals" can be pre empted during the prospecting , introductory meeting, planning and presentation stages of the sales process.

Being an effective salesperson takes prectice

Most people pracrise their favourite sport, or learning a new musical instrument or dance step. Few people practise the skills that they use to earn their income. Doaing a job is not the same as practising to do it well.
In sales it is a common assumption that 'you learn as you go'. That might be fine for the few individuals for whom the process comes easily. However most of us need practise to acquire and keep any new skill. Perfect practise makes perfect. It produces highly affective salespeople.

You would be wise to lavish the best part of your attention to sales process; that part of the sale you can control, by practising -and perfecting-your skills until they become as natural to you as breathing. The emphasis is on working at it until you get it right.

Continue to The Science Of Selling ( part 2 )

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